Indie Rock Supergroup Wild Flag Are No More

Drummer Janet Weiss said the band "ran its course" after its stellar 2011 self-titled debut

If you wave a banner for terrifically blazing indie rock, better put it at half mast today. Wild Flag have gone their separate ways. The all-star, all-female band’s members had been busy with other projects since their excellent 2011 self-titled debut album, and now drummer Janet Weiss has confirmed this supergroup is no longer a group at all.

“It was great but I think it just kinda ran its course,” she said of Wild Flag, according to The Skinny (via FACT). “It’s hard to have a band when you live five hours apart by plane.”

Asked for further confirmation, a rep for label home Merge Records said that was unnecessary as Weiss’ quote “pretty much says it all.”

Wild Flag’s members were singer-guitarists Carrie Brownstein, best known from Sleater-Kinney, and Mary Timony, best known from Helium, plus Sleater-Kinney drummer Weiss and keyboardist Rebecca Cole (formerly of Elephant Six band the Minders). These indie luminaries played their first live show in September 2010. Their last gig took place in August 2012 at Brooklyn’s Prospect Park Bandshell with Mission of Burma and Ted Leo.

Wild Flag’s sheer existence always felt like a gift — four musicians with an already formidable legacy, uniting to tack on just that much more — and what they did looks all the more precious now that it’s over. Luckily, those lamenting the loss of Wild Flag can still hear plenty of new music from the band’s constituent parts.

Brownstein and Weiss reunited onstage with the rest of Sleater-Kinney — and Pearl Jam — for a Neil Young cover over Thanksgiving weekend. Brownstein also famously co-stars with Fred Armisen on the IFC show Portlandia. Weiss played on a recent album with all-drummer supergroup Drumgasm and is currently on the road with her other long-running band, Quasi, in support of this year’s Mole City. Timony — when not cameoing in Mikal Cronin videos — formed a new band called Ex Hex, which has a hometown show in Washington, D.C., scheduled for December 8. Cole’s next project isn’t clear, but we’ll update this space if we find out more.